Post about searing pain

Yowwwwwwwwwwwwww!

I was making skillet fajitas with some 'fake steak' strips and peppers and onions. The recipe I was using called for a dash of Tabasco sauce, so while sauteing the veggies I added it. Then, in slow motion, the Tabasco bottle slipped off the counter as I was trying to set it down, bounced a couple of times off my free hand in slow-motion, and then landed on the rug, where the bottom of the bottle neatly broke off, causing an entire bottle of hot sauce to spill on the rug, but mostly onto my right foot. I cursed and threw the rug on the back porch and wiped up the spill on the floor quickly, then wiped off some of the hot sauce off my foot before finishing cooking and eating. While eating I noticed my foot felt increasingly pained, like it was burnt. I FINISHED EATING and then went to the bathtub to rinse off my foot, probably about ten or 15 minutes after the initial spill.

It still hurts. A lot. I've rinsed it twice now, and put some lotion on, but it doesn't help. Tabasco suace isn't even supposed to be that hot. Oh fuck it hurts.

Post about the Weather

I like fall weather because the summer is too sweaty and the winter is too painful. Plus, I've always thought of myself as an autumn, fashion-wise. Today is a fall-type day, very autumnal, high of 63, current temp 59. My apartment, as you know, is old and shitty and poorly insulated, we can't control the heat. It magically will turn on sometime in October and make our place an oven until April with its rattling radiators. So right now it's 60 degrees in here, and I'm freezing. I seriously don't know what to do with myself. I've been drinking tea, wearing a hoodie, moccasins on my feet, and my nose feels like an ice-cube. Dare I start cleaning something in order to stay warm?

Actually, I think I'll cook instead. Something spicy.

Post about Eyeballs

On Monday night I stayed up kind of late, like 12:20 or so, while listening to music on my big old falling apart headphones and reading a magazine on the futon and sipping cheap booze. It was one of those nights where I wasn't too tired but knew I had to get to bed since I had to work in the morning. So I turned off all the lights and began my nightly bathroom routine, which consists of taking out contacts, brushing teeth, etc. I forgot to plug the sink, and when I popped out my first contact (I wear the small hard ones) it flew errantly past my waiting hand, landed on its tiny side on the porcelin, and gracefully made an arcing roll into the open drain. But, alas, all was not lost, as the contact was still visible, stuck on the side of the drain hole! I couldn't pull out the drain stop thing, so I grabed a Qtip and tried to guide the lens back out with the precision of a brain surgeon. Well, that didn't work at all, as I just pushed the lens completely down the drain. I thought about cracking open the pipe under the sink, but our largest wrench is about four times too small.

So, first lost contact in six or seven years. The next day I dug out my old pair from five years ago, which were dry and brittle in their case. So since then I've been wearing one contact in my right eye that is five years old, and one contact in my left eye that is two years old. Needless to say, while my daily life isn't too affected it seems to be a challenge to stare at a computer screen. Which I've been doing for eight hours a day the last four days. I had a headache all of Tuesday, snuck out of work early to go to the eye doctor. Brand new pair should hopefully arrive tomorrow or Monday. I've decided to get new glasses as well, since I can't even read or watch TV in my old ones any more. I am blind!

Because of the whole 'it is annoying to stare at a computer screen' thing, I've had a good excuse to not do too much work this week. Or do any writing, obviously.

Post about being Sick

I'm kind of sick this week. Not too bad, just a little under the weather. I haven't been sick since last winter, and this crappy feeling started right on Wednesday when it was delightfully fall-like outside. Certain medical 'experts' I know tell me that the temperature outside has nothing to do with catching a cold, but that's fucking bullshit.

Either way, I'm still going out drinking tonight.

Post about Labor Day Weekend

First day of off work tomorrow since Friday of Nate-a-pol-ooza in July (maybe I'll devote a separate post to that), and I may be going mini-golfing. That will be the most exciting thing possible. First 48 hours of 3 day weekend have been spent at home, doing virtually nothing. Sure, I had the chance to meet friends out of town, but no car available. Boo. Sure, I asked other friends what they were up to, but most went of town themselves. Sure, I had plans to watch football and hang with someone yesterday, but of course they blew me off for no reason. Right at this second it is 9:42 on Sunday night, here is what I've done this weekend:

-Friday night got Thai takeout (Yellow Curry (medium spicy) with Tofu) and watched an episode of The Wire (more to be written about that show soon enough). I think later on I played a game of Madden 07 and watched Conan.

-Yesterday did some cleaning, watched the Badger football game, took an hour walk, played more Madden, watched The Big Sleep.

-Today I surfed the web, read my first issue of Playboy magazine cover to cover (more on that later for sure), did more cleaning, played more Madden, walked to Walgreens and Aldi's, made my world famous potato-chickpea curry (recipe to follow), watched the movie Brick with director's commentary, talked to parents on phone, wrote crazy blog posts. My finest accomplishment, however, is avoiding going to a wedding/reception, still ongoing, that would surely have been quite painful.

Throughout all this weekend's activity there has been sporadic but relatively constant drinking. Mostly beer, a couple rum and whiskey drinks. Not enough, apparently.

Post about the Grand Canyon

Short version:

Don't hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back in July. Or, perhaps, ever.

Long version:

Sure, I have some self-esteem issues. For instance, I always am fixing my hair anytime I catch my reflection. And I hate every picture taken of me. Plus the whole eyebrow issue. And I'm not too smrt. Anyway, in the past I rarely was caught in public wearing sandals or flipflops because I hate my feet. There's too much hair going on, plus a couple ingrown toenails in the late 1990s causing really weird looking toes, with nails that seem too big for the toes with too great of a convexity, causing much pain when stepped on. Lately I have been wondering around in flip-flops in the neighborhood once in a while, but mostly because sometimes it is too hot to give a fuck. But now, post AGC (Anno Grand Canyon), no one should gaze upon my feet with a full stomach. Before July 6th I don't think I ever had a blister on my feet. Maybe once or twice, but obviously nothing memorable. Well, after hiking down to the bottom, I had one dime, two nickel, and one quarter sized blisters. On the way up, the ones on my heel burst (one nickel and one quarter) and were replaced by new, equal size blisters. One on my big toe actually grew a blister on top of another blister. Plus, a day or so later, I notice the nail on my right big toe was half-black from blood underneath, something that still remains nearly two months later.

So, that pretty much sums it up. Oh, the temp at the bottom was 115 degrees in the shade. There was AC in the cabin, luckily. I saw many scorpions under a blacklight. About a mile from the top coming down I twisted my ankle, and about a mile from the top going up I literally wanted to collapse and die. I didn't, in case you were wondering.

Go walk on a treadmill for seven hours at the highest grade while standing next to an open oven. Kind of like that.

Here are some pics. We accidentally took the broken camera, so we didn't have too many in focus. Unfortunately all the pictures of me had my hair looking terrible.

WOW!!!

I remember the innocent days of sitting down at my computer and just writing and writing, pouring out my most intimate thoughts, feeling a deep sense of accomplishment at the sight of words on a computer screen. What the fuck happened? Sure, it's been nearly two months, but even this whole year has largely been a bust, no 'Greatest Hits' of my blogging career for sure. I don't have an excuse. I might be busier than the first few months of this particular blog, but its not like I'm leading some crazy exciting life over here. I'm not going to offer any excuses, but lately its been kind of intimidating to sit down and start writing, since I have so much ground to cover.

So, instead of writing one massive 5,000 word return to form, I'm going to concentrate on writing short and sweet posts, one subject at a time.

The goal is 30 posts in September. This is #1.

Come fly with me, Fly!!!!!!!